Andrew Perrin, an associate professor of sociology, has been named the new director of the Carolina Seminars Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Perrin succeeds James Peacock, Kenan Professor of Anthropology.
The mission of the Carolina Seminars Program is to assemble scholars from different departments and schools to study complex problems, bridge disciplinary boundaries and enrich academic discourse.
Perrin is a cultural and political sociologist who has published on a broad range of topics, including recent articles on public opinion research, the Tea Party Movement and obesity-related behaviors and stigma in children’s movies. He teaches courses in sociological theory and cultural sociology as well as first-year seminars on democratic citizenship in the United States. He is also a member of the UNC Faculty Athletics Committee and the UNC Student-Athlete Initiative Working Group.
“Professor Perrin is an accomplished interdisciplinary scholar and well-prepared to build on the remarkable history and success of the Carolina Seminars Program and extend its reach to all corners of the campus,” said Carol Tresolini, vice provost for academic initiatives. “We are deeply grateful to the Massey and Weatherspoon families for making this program possible and, in so doing, enriching the life of the University.”
Effective Feb. 1, Perrin is in charge of providing intellectual and administrative leadership to the program by encouraging interdisciplinary examination of critical issues. He will solicit proposals for new seminars, assess their value and contributions and align them with the goals of the Academic Plan. He will also administer the Douglass Hunt Lecture series.
A graduate of Swarthmore College, Perrin earned his doctorate in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was an assistant professor of sociology at UNC from 2001 to 2007, when he became an associate professor of sociology. He is the author or co-author of five books, including “Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in American Life” (2006) and the forthcoming “American Democracy: From Tocqueville to Town Halls to Twitter.”
